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FBI seizes 800+ safety deposit boxes in constitutionally dubious raid. Honest citizens: to get your stuff, come forward and prove your innocence! Login/Join 
Tequila with lime
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The FBI is a rogue agency, just like the CIA, and should be dismantled. Ideally, it should be dismantled with long prison sentences for much of its agents and leadership.




Thank you President Trump.
 
Posts: 8366 | Location: KS, USA | Registered: May 26, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of ridewv
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Sounds like the FBI has adopted the IRS's policy of "guilty unless you can prove that you're innocent."


No car is as much fun to drive, as any motorcycle is to ride.
 
Posts: 7386 | Location: Northern WV | Registered: January 17, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Be prepared for loud noise and recoil
Picture of sigalert
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So, eventually, cryptocurrency will be the answer to traditional banking?





“Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.” – James Madison

"Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others." - Robert Louis Stevenson
 
Posts: 3628 | Location: Middle Tennessee  | Registered: March 23, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by ElToro:
quote:
Originally posted by DaveL:
They're going to have one very angry federal judge on their hands if they used their policy to expand the scope of the search beyond what the warrant allowed. They should have left the boxes locked, sealed them with security tape (while recording on video), and then contacted the owners to pick up their property. Breaking into locked boxes in order to inventory is absurd.


The Fibs will give their best Andrew Jackson impersonation answer to that judge. “Let him enforce it”

That’s the problem, there appears to be no accountability at all to anybody of agents running wild in every agency. Until quite a few are very publicly summarily fired with no pension and possibly some legit jail time for violating civil rights while on duty nothing will change.


Don’t lose all hope. Federal judges preside over civil rights cases and they issue search warrants. Having them on your bad side is legitimately bad if you’re a federal agent. They don’t like being duped.
 
Posts: 1014 | Location: Tampa | Registered: July 27, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Step by step walk the thousand mile road
Picture of Sig2340
posted Hide Post
INBELIEVABLE and UNCONCEIVABLE





Nice is overrated

"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
 
Posts: 32370 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: May 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Coin Sniper
Picture of Rightwire
posted Hide Post
Why is this shocking? The Governor of Michigan is defying just about every law on the books and can't be stopped. The election was clearly stolen and the investigation blocked at every turn. School Boards are going after dissenters and costing them their jobs in the private sector.

We are now in a country where government appears to do whatever it wants and if you don't like it. Tough. If you get loud about it, you'll be silenced or doxed.




Pronoun: His Royal Highness and benevolent Majesty of all he surveys

343 - Never Forget

Its better to be Pavlov's dog than Schrodinger's cat

There are three types of mistakes; Those you learn from, those you suffer from, and those you don't survive.
 
Posts: 38473 | Location: Above the snow line in Michigan | Registered: May 21, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Political Cynic
Picture of nhtagmember
posted Hide Post
We have ceased being a nation of laws and the DoJ (Democrats Obstructing Justice) have pretty much put the last nail in that coffin.

This country is in dire need of a reset
 
Posts: 54060 | Location: Tucson Arizona | Registered: January 16, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Be prepared for loud noise and recoil
Picture of sigalert
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by nhtagmember:
This country is in dire need of a reset


It’s coming.





“Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.” – James Madison

"Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others." - Robert Louis Stevenson
 
Posts: 3628 | Location: Middle Tennessee  | Registered: March 23, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
semi-reformed sailor
Picture of MikeinNC
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by sigalert:
quote:
Originally posted by nhtagmember:
This country is in dire need of a reset


It’s coming.


You are right, I was hoping that my kid wouldn’t have to be involved...and that it would be during my generation...but that’s not going to happen.



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11568 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
blame canada
Picture of AKSuperDually
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An update from Steve Lehto.

Turns out *gasp & surprise*, the warrant did NOT include box contents, and people are reporting their stuff is missing also...poor inventory and probable theft by the government's agents. Color me not surprised.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The trouble with our Liberal friends...is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." Ronald Reagan, 1964
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Arguing with some people is like playing chess with a pigeon. It doesn't matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon will just take a shit on the board, strut around knocking over all the pieces and act like it won.. and in some cases it will insult you at the same time." DevlDogs55, 2014 Big Grin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.rikrlandvs.com
 
Posts: 14008 | Location: On the mouth of the great Kenai River | Registered: June 24, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
delicately calloused
Picture of darthfuster
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by AKSuperDually:

An update from Steve Lehto.

Turns out *gasp & surprise*, the warrant did NOT include box contents, and people are reporting their stuff is missing also...poor inventory and probable theft by the government's agents. Color me not surprised.


We are looking like Venezuela more and more every day.



You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
 
Posts: 29998 | Location: Norris Lake, TN | Registered: May 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
blame canada
Picture of AKSuperDually
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by darthfuster:
quote:
Originally posted by AKSuperDually:
[FLASH_VIDEO]snipped/FLASH_VIDEO]
An update from Steve Lehto.

Turns out *gasp & surprise*, the warrant did NOT include box contents, and people are reporting their stuff is missing also...poor inventory and probable theft by the government's agents. Color me not surprised.


We are looking like Venezuela more and more every day.

Agreed.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The trouble with our Liberal friends...is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." Ronald Reagan, 1964
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Arguing with some people is like playing chess with a pigeon. It doesn't matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon will just take a shit on the board, strut around knocking over all the pieces and act like it won.. and in some cases it will insult you at the same time." DevlDogs55, 2014 Big Grin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.rikrlandvs.com
 
Posts: 14008 | Location: On the mouth of the great Kenai River | Registered: June 24, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Uppity Helot
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To an unsettling number of feds this is regarded as a feature not a bug.
 
Posts: 3218 | Location: Manheim, PA | Registered: September 04, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Jimbo Jones
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Seems like this is right out of the movie "Training Day": criminals with badges under the guise of law enforcement seizing someone else's wealth for their own personal gain. But this is worse...unlink in TD (where the "victims" were also criminals and illegally obtained their wealth), the FBI knows and admits that many of the people whose possessiont they seized are not criminals.

Its truly disgusting. No wonder David Bowdich retired back in Feb.


---------------------------------------
It's like my brain's a tree and you're those little cookie elves.
 
Posts: 3625 | Location: Cary, NC | Registered: February 26, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Sig2340:
Unbelievable.

quote:
The FBI Seized Heirlooms, Coins, and Cash From Hundreds of Safe Deposit Boxes in Beverly Hills, Despite Knowing 'Some' Belonged to 'Honest Citizens'
Victims of the FBI's constitutionally dubious raid say they've been told to come forward and identify themselves if they want their stuff back.

Eric Boehm | 5.10.2021 10:15 AM
dreamstime_xl_13306534
(Photo 13306534 © Davidgn | Dreamstime.com)

Dagny discovered that the FBI had seized the contents of her safe deposit box—about $100,000 in gold and silver coins, some family heirlooms like a diamond necklace inherited from her late grandmother, and an engagement ring she'd promised to pass down to her daughter—almost by accident.

She'd been asked by a friend to recommend a convenient and secure location for keeping some valuables. Dagny searched Yelp to find the phone number for U.S. Private Vaults, a Beverly Hills facility where she'd rented a safe deposit box since 2017. That's when she saw the bad news.

"Permanently closed."

After a brief moment of panic, some phone calls, and several days, Dagny and her husband Howard (pseudonyms used at their request to maintain privacy during ongoing legal proceedings) figured out what happened. On March 22, the FBI had raided U.S. Private Vaults. The federal agents were armed with a warrant allowing them to seize property belonging to the company as part of a criminal investigation—and even though the warrant explicitly exempted the safe deposit boxes in the company's vaults, they were taken too. More than 800 were seized.

Howard tells Reason there was no attempt made by the FBI to contact him, his wife, or their heirs—despite the fact that contact information was taped to the top of their box. Six weeks later, the couple is still waiting for their property to be returned. (Both individuals are supporters of Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website.)

The FBI and federal prosecutors have "no authority to continue holding the possessions of some 800 bystanders who are not alleged to have been involved in whatever USPV may have done wrong," Benjamin Gluck, a California attorney who is representing several of the people caught up in the FBI's raid of U.S. Private Vaults, tells Reason.

Legal efforts to force the FBI to return the items seized during the March 22 raid have so far been unsuccessful, but at least five lawsuits are pending in federal court.

A federal grand jury indicted U.S. Private Vaults (USPV) on counts of conspiracy to distribute drugs, launder money, and avoid mandatory deposit reporting requirements.

In legal filings, federal prosecutors have admitted that "some" of the company's customers were "honest citizens," but contend that "the majority of the box-holders are criminals who used USPV's anonymity to hide their ill-gotten wealth."

Whatever the original motivation for the raid, the FBI's seizure of hundreds of safe deposit boxes held by U.S. Private Vaults raises serious Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues. In order to have the contents of their boxes returned, federal authorities are asking owners to come forward, identify themselves, and describe their possessions. Some owners may be unwilling to do that—U.S. Private Vaults allowed anonymous rentals of safe-deposit boxes—while others may rightfully object to being subjected to the scrutiny of federal law enforcement when they have done nothing wrong.

"The constitution does not abide guilt by association," argues Robert Frommer, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm, in an op-ed published by The Orange County Register.

"What the government has done here is completely backward," writes Frommer. "The government cannot search every apartment in a building because the landlord is involved in a crime. After all, when somebody rents an apartment, that apartment is theirs."

Indeed, the unsealed warrant authorizing the raid of U.S. Private Vaults granted the FBI permission to seize the business's computers, money counters, security cameras, and "nests" of safe deposit boxes—the large steel frames that effectively act as bookshelves for the boxes themselves.

Importantly, the warrant "does not authorize a criminal search or seizure of the contents of the safe-deposit boxes," according to a copy of the warrant contained in court filings. The warrant also states that it "authorize[s] the seizure of the nests of the boxes themselves, not their contents."

[OP notes: But FBI seized them anyway, opened each box, cataloged the contents, and now demands owners come forward and prove their lack of involvement in USPVs criminal behavior! Unbelievable!]

But the FBI's own policies seem to have allowed a roundabout legal rationale for seizing the boxes as well. Agents are required to take into custody any property that could otherwise be stolen or left "in a dangerous manner" after carrying out a warrant. To put it in the context of a simpler situation: If the FBI seized a truck carrying cargo, it would not simply dump the cargo on the side of the road. Instead, there is a specific procedure for law enforcement to follow, which involves identifying and notifying rightful property owners, as well as securing the property.

In court filings, however, Gluck and other attorneys representing anonymous plaintiffs argue that the seizure of the nests "does not appear to be the government's true purpose here."

"A reasonable person could easily conclude that taking and searching the contents of the boxes was the true purpose of the USPV seizure, not just an unintended but unavoidable byproduct as the government seeks to portray and justify it," they write.

Now that the FBI has nearly 1,000 safe deposit boxes in its custody, anyone who comes forward to identify themselves and claim their possessions risks becoming the target of a criminal investigation. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California told the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a legal industry publication, last month that "each box is being considered on a case-by-case basis, and we will investigate the boxes, or claims made on them" to determine if "the contents are related to criminal activity."

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that this amounts to an admission that prosecutors intend "to use any information gleaned in the claims process in order to conduct criminal investigations." U.S. Private Vaults had assured its customers that their anonymity would be protected, and people could have valid, non-criminal reasons for wanting to keep their identities a secret.

The rights violations are bad enough, but the FBI raid seems to have had serious procedural shortcomings as well. One 80-year-old woman represented by Gluck—and identified in court documents only as "Linda R."—may have lost a significant portion of her life savings due to what legal filings say are shoddy inventories of the safe deposit boxes' contents.

In a lawsuit filed on April 26, Linda R.'s attorneys argue that the FBI "failed to account for or return" 40 gold coins worth an estimated $75,000 that had been stored in a safe deposit box housed at U.S. Private Vaults. Department of Justice documentation detailing the contents of Linda's box makes note of "miscellaneous coins" without any specific amounts or other identification of the coins—Linda's attorneys note that the description could apply to everything from a pair of pennies to a box full of 1933 double eagle gold coins, some of the rarest and most valuable coins ever minted. For now, it remains unclear whether the government even possesses an accurate accounting of what was in her safe deposit box when it was seized.

Despite the broad claims of criminality from prosecutors, Linda has been charged with no crimes but may have lost tens of thousands of dollars of her retirement savings anyway. Even if the FBI's raid of U.S. Private Vaults eventually uncovers criminal activity relating to some of the safe-deposit boxes stored there, that hardly seems to justify the potential losses incurred by innocent bystanders like Linda, who kept her retirement savings there because she distrusted the banking system, according to court filings.

"It was improper that the government seized these possessions in the first place, unconscionable that they are using them as hostages to pressure owners to divulge private information, and outrageous that they apparently treated the possessions so carelessly that they seem to have lost at least some of them," Gluck tells Reason.

Jeffrey B. Isaacs, an attorney for another anonymous customer of U.S. Private Vaults—identified in court records as "James Poe"—tells the Los Angeles Times that the FBI's raid is "as illegal a search and seizure as I've ever seen."

For Dagny and Howard, the situation seems particularly cruel. They'd rented the box at U.S. Private Vaults after having their home burgled several years ago. They have the key and rental agreement for the box—and, Howard notes, they paid for the box with a credit card, hardly the sort of thing you'd do if you were trying to hide your identity from the feds or engage in criminal conduct. None of that has made a difference so far.

Because this time, the burglars wore badges.


Unbelievable.


Not really!


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25656 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
safe & sound
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I haven't done a ton of warrant openings, as I believe most of the time the combination is given up or the safe is opened voluntarily.

On the handful that I have opened, the police have shown me a copy of the warrant. The language may not have always been the same, but the safe was always mentioned as a place to be searched. Same with safe deposit boxes. The warrant has always listed the renter of the box, the owner of the box (the bank), and that the box is to be forced open to be searched.

Sounds like this warrant was for a seizure of the business assets (the nests of boxes), but not the assets of third parties (the contents of those boxes).


________________________



www.zykansafe.com
 
Posts: 15945 | Location: St. Charles, MO, USA | Registered: September 22, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Experienced Slacker
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Has the FBI ever been anything close to what it is cracked up to be? I'm giving it a think and coming up with nope.

The whole "it's mostly good agents" thing is getting very tiresome.

Fact is, I feel less safe because this agency exists than I would if it didn't.
 
Posts: 7550 | Registered: May 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of pulicords
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quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Kook:
The FBI is a rogue agency, just like the CIA, and should be dismantled. Ideally, it should be dismantled with long prison sentences for much of its agents and leadership.


Nice broad-brush you've got there. Roll Eyes

While I agree that BOTH organizations can and should be substantially reorganized, corruption can't be addressed by "dismantling" organizations essential to the safety and security of our country, then attempting to start over again from scratch. Or maybe you were you suggesting we can do without an organization(s) capable of providing national leaders with critical information on foreign threats and protecting the public through the enforcement of federal law? Just imagine how much safer our country could be if terrorists planning "9-11" type attacks were even LESS likely to be discovered or arrested for involvement in such plots. Organizations like the CIA, FBI, and DOJ are capable of learning from institutional wrongdoing, if those personally involved are personally charged with the crimes they committed and held to answer.

Accountability can't occur unless/until those who commit criminal acts as members of law enforcement or intelligence organizations are charged with actual crimes, convicted, and imprisoned, regardless of their position within the organization(s). That said, coloring all members of these organizations as inept, corrupt, or criminal, is as wrong as blaming all members of a particular ethnicity, religion, etc..., for the actions of individuals. That's what individual responsibility is all about. The FBI and CIA management after eight years of Obama based "grooming" (selective appointments and promotions) have shown themselves as being incapable of recognizing that their loyalty needs to be to the citizens at large, rather than their political masters. This culture needs to change and can IF, proper people are put in place. If (like BLM proponents believe) there are no qualified replacements available, because our Constitution is fundamentally flawed and incapable of performing the tasks the founders wanted government to do, the only real alternative is anarchy.


"I'm not fluent in the language of violence, but I know enough to get around in places where it's spoken."
 
Posts: 10281 | Location: The Free State of Arizona | Registered: June 13, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Thank you
Very little
Picture of HRK
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quote:
Sounds like this warrant was for a seizure of the business assets (the nests of boxes), but not the assets of third parties (the contents of those boxes).


Cleverly written and issued this way, it allows the feds to take the boxes themselves, and prohibited them from entering the boxes.

The boxes, now in possession of the FBI lawfully, and since no names, lists or ID's were available, there is nobody you can contact, therefore you have to ask all owners to come in by marketing/advertising it, ID yourself with Key to open the box.

So you have to come in, ID yourself someway to collect your goods, the caveat being, can they watch you collect your goods, do they have a legal way to force you to reveal yourself, your goods, catalog it and hold it without a warrant.

Can or will a judge be there to issue warrants to seize your assets after you open the box so they can legally see it, since its out in the open..

After some amount of time, I'd bet the proceeds get seized or eschated to the feds..
 
Posts: 24664 | Location: Gunshine State | Registered: November 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Raptorman
Picture of Mars_Attacks
posted Hide Post
They're feds, they will manufacture a crime on the spot to seize your property.


____________________________

Eeewwww, don't touch it!
Here, poke at it with this stick.
 
Posts: 34571 | Location: North, GA | Registered: October 09, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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